Loving the demon
by FelinesAndPhoenixes
Summary: Sweeney/OC. Oneshot fic about Sweeney's relationship with an OC who works for Mrs. Lovett. Hard to explain. Better summary inside.


Title: Loving the demonAuthor: Falaba ToddSummary: Oneshot. A glimpse into the life of one who is doomed to love a demon.Pairings: Sweeney/OCDisclaimer: Everything belongs to someone who isn't me. This was a challenge for –Beyond The Horizon- and the OC belongs to her, etcetera and so forth.Time reference: As I was writing a challenge about the OCs generally chemistry with Sweeney, I decided that I would write about how she originally felt about him, instead of how the relationship developed, etc. So….this is early.Note to the challenger: Sorry it took so long. I hope you like it. I didn't know a lot of specifics about the plot, so I sort of faked it. Note on the background: Essentially as per the challengers directions, this is Sweeney/OC before she dies by his hand for knowing too much. (see note at end)

"Kiera? Dearie? Are you listenin'?" Mrs. Lovett prodded gently as she leaned over her shoulder. "Don't go gettin' into one of them melancholy moods, now. What with Mr. T up there pacing around all the time, and all his raving about revenge…" Mrs. Lovett rolled her eyes as she turned from her employee back to the counter where she had been arranging pies for that evening's hoard of dinner guests in a precariously balanced stack on trays. "Toby!" she yelled, taking the topmost tray and setting it further down the counter. "Take these!" she said as the boy dashed into the room, flinging an empty tray down onto the counter.

"Yes mum," he panted, grabbing the tray and turning to race out the door to serve the hoard. As he passes by, Kiera reached out to ruffle his hair. He glanced over his shoulder and flashed a quick smile in her direction. He'd been so lucky since he'd come there, he knew. Not only had he found a mother in Mrs. Lovett, but a sister and a friend in her young associate. He couldn't have been happier, and everything was perfect. If only he could stop suspecting Mr. Todd of wrongdoing, he might be able to find a father figure, too.

Mrs. Lovett muttered a curse as she dropped another pie onto the empty tray and turned to the stove. "Stew is ready; pies are needin' to come out…." She glared in the direction of the door that hid the stairs to the bake house, wishing she could send Toby or Kiera to get the pies for once instead of doing all the work herself. All the hard work, she should say. She actually envied Kiera and the job that she had assigned to her. She was in charge of taking meals up to the demon barber in the shop above, and doing the light cleaning. Granted she only worked on Thursdays and Saturdays, those were still days where Mrs. Lovett didn't get to see Sweeney as often, where she didn't get the satisfaction of personally going upstairs and hounding him to eat, trying to get him to take his mind off of the judge and think of something more important. Like herself, perhaps.

"Dearie," she said, turning with a bowl of stew in her hands, gently placing it on a tray next to a chunk of some sort of bread and a glass of ale. "This is ready to go up there." She titled her head back, glancing up toward her ceiling where the pacing noises still persisted. She mentally cursed again, realizing if he was still pacing, he obviously wasn't killing anyone and she'd failed at sending someone up there for a shave while they waited for a table to become available. So to speak. She handed the tray to Kiera, at least glad that if Mr. T was in a foul mood he as going to be the younger woman's problem instead of her own. "Get him to eat it this time," she said, though she'd been saying it almost every time the girl took something upstairs. Mr. Todd was so frustratingly difficult. Nothing either woman did would persuade him to do anything at all, much less eat.

Kiera nodded, and turned to take the tray, clothes swishing. She shook her hair back off her face for what seemed like the hundredth time and headed up the stairs. She stopped and balanced the tray on one hand to knock on the door. "Mr. Todd?" she called softly. "Hello?" She nudged the door open and slipped inside the shop. The pacing had stopped. And Sweeney Todd was nowhere to be seen. She lay the tray on the counter next to his prized razors and slowly walked around the room, taking everything in. She paced the room, running her hand lightly across the box of razors. There was something quite intriguing about Mr. Todd. Something was strange about him, but she just couldn't quite put her finger on what it was. She sighed and sank down into his barber chair to wait until he returned.

The door slammed open and Sweeney Todd stalked in a moment later. She glanced up, startled from her thoughts. "What are you doing in here?" he demanded as he saw her. "I've told you to say out, especially when I'm not here."

"I brought your dinner," she explained, standing. "And Mrs. Lovett said to make sure you ate it this time."

Sweeney rolled his eyes. "Leave me," he said, falling dramatically into his chair, thoughts already on revenge and only revenge, not food, not Mrs. Lovett, not even the young woman who was still standing there. Finally realizing that she wasn't going to just leave, he stood and crossed the room to stand in front of her. Staring down into her eyes, he asked, "Do you never listen to me?"She shook her head. "Not especially, Mr. Todd. But you never listen to anything I say to you, either. And its for your own good. You need to eat. And interacting with someone other than your customers every once in a while is good for you." Damn it, she was going to make him enjoy the company of people if it was the last thing she did. Before she died she had to at least do something to better someone's life.

"Interactions," he mused. "I don't suppose that an interaction with the judge involving him dying would be inappropriate."

"Excuse me?" she asked. She'd heard Mrs. Lovett ranting about Sweeney Todd wanting revenge, but this was the first she'd actually heard of it.

"Nothing," he said.

"In any case, Mr. Todd, you really do need to eat something. Please. For me? As a favor to a friend?"

He leaned down to rest his forehead against hers. "I'll think about it," he said. He leaned down quickly and kissed her, turning on his heel and crossing the room again. "Now leave me."

She turned with a quick smiled and left the room, softly closing the door behind her. She hummed quietly as she walked down the stairs and back into the shop. She smiled at Mrs. Lovett and couldn't help but hug Toby as he came into the room.

"Wot was that for?" he asked, though he was beaming at the thought of having a real family. Sort of.

"Nothing," she said. "Things are just looking up." She brought her hand to her lips and let it linger there for a moment, all suspicions that Mr. Todd was up to something momentarily gone, her earlier melancholy mood dissipating. Yes, things were looking up, indeed.

Note: There are a lot of random little ironic things in this story that I'm not sure if anyone would catch but me, but they're there. And if you catch them, cookies to you.


End file.
